Monday, 25 August 2014

The simplest of summer skirts... the width of the fabric joined with a french seam, an elasticated waist and a cheery strip added at the bottom. I used two lengths of skinnier elastic at the waist because I like the look, and the yellow band was added as the ribbon hem in (the free!) Lazy Days Skirt from Oliver+S.

The dreamy fabric is Bartholomeows reef deep water with a Kona cotton solid, probably lemon, used as the trim. These fabrics are beautifully soft. Both from the ever so lovely Sew and Quilt. Oh so happily for online ordering this landed on my doormat in its pretty pink packaging amazingly quickly, as usual. No waiting around for the postie for days and days. And oh I want a skirt like this!

Happy birthday, Molly! Hope you are having fun being six...

And those few paragraphs seem to be all I can manage these summer holidays! This summer has sped by, far quicker than any other holiday. We have had a fun time doing things, seeing friends, a holiday in Devon, and gentle days. I thought I would find lots of crochet time - this was to be the summer of the hexie blanket - and I have taken it to most places where it has languished in its bag. Devon was cold (with hail) so the perfect place for some crochet where I could bury myself under the blanket in progress but a little P kept returning to the beach shelter as he was chilly and we spent most of the holiday playing top trumps and Uno (thank you Linda and Ems!)

How are you spending the bank holiday? Patch has already dragged out game of life, recently discovered in a charity shop, and I have plans to fill the wardrobe built yesterday. This is the start of my sewing room (how grand) redecorate... so far I've painted the wall the wardrobe is in front of. And that is all. So three more walls and wallpapering to go! This is one of those wardrobes that is miraculously going to solve all of our household clutter, and yet I seem to have filled much of it and we still have clutter. Hmmm. Happy bank holiday!

Monday, 4 August 2014

Hmmm... it would seem that all my makes these past few months have been the crochet type. There has been some sewing but now I think about it, a sad absence of knitting. I would now like to spend the morning knitting, but we have a bounce on the bouncy pillow with a friend planned. Do I have time to search through my basket for a suitable project to start before we go? Chances are I shall just grab my current crochet already in a handy bag...

I wanted to make some summery crochet cowls for friend's birthdays and, really not like me at all, choose not to follow a pattern. Madness for me. Well, I sort of did follow a pattern - this pretty poncho by Nicki Trench - but joined in the round and worked until the balls of wool were finished.

I used dmc natura just cotton for both cowls, the first one in turquoise. I really did wind it around my neck to check sizing, but at the join of the foundation chain stage. And then I suppose all those clusters changed that size and interestingly I didn't think to check again until the cowl was done. It was then that I discovered that it didn't wrap around twice but sort of hung like a wide crochet necklace. I have decided that this is a rather trendy way to wear a cowl this season and that this was the way it was always meant to be.

Though for the second cowl I increased those foundation chains. And checked a few rounds in.

Happily this one did wrap. This one was crocheted in the colour amaranto. And aside from some length issues they are the summery cowls I imagined at the start!

Friday, 1 August 2014

Oh my, we have already had a week of summer holidays. Full of seeing lovely people and a dreamy long weekend in Chichester spent with Linda and Ems including a rather splendid day at Goodwood as Mr R and Ems took part in the Brompton World Championship. And a lazy day planned today.

So, on with the cowl and string bags. P has been oh so lucky to have the delightful Kelly as his teacher for the past two years (and is oh so happy to have her again next year!) so we/I decided on a summery cowl to say thank you for being so lovely

The dobby dot fabric came from Ditto and was simply sewn together with a neat french seam to make a large loop. Inspiration for the pretty edge came from the purl bee's edged linen wrap.

And the other grown ups received a thank you... string bag. Of course. Such an obvious thank you present. The first was made following the recipe for the everything & anything crochet string bag from dottie angel's and ted & agnes' granny chic though I made the top edge and handles wider

and just look at the bottom!

This was made using wool from the basket - two balls of rowan handknit cotton in ice water and some cassis. This is a great, strong cotton for making string bags.

And then I saw this one and had to make one. Or two. This is a free pattern on the classic elite yarn site called the Provence summer string bag. And a summery bag needed summery colours

Or so I thought (Patch chose the colour below!). This is Rico essentials cotton dk in melon and royal below

I had meant to follow the pattern though got distracted on this blue version and made treble stitches where there should have been doubles. Oh well. Other than that I kept to the pattern! These use three balls of the Rico, though hardly any of the third ball.